Hovey to His Excellency, September 3, 1870

Mr. Alvin P. Hovey to Señor Loayza.

Sir: Colonel W. D. Farrand having been duly appointed hearer of important dispatches and treaties from this legation to the Department of State at Washington, informs me that legal efforts are being made by certain persons to prevent his embarkation on the steamer leaving Callao to-morrow for Panama, with said dispatches and treaties. I need scarcely say to your excellency that it is beyond the legal authority of any of the tribunals of another country to hinder, delay, or arrest any member of a legation, or any bearer of dispatches from the same. I respectfully refer your excellency to chapter 1, part iii, of Wheaton’s Elements of International Law, commencing at section 14 to 19, inclusive, the last, section 19, bearing more particularly upon this point.

I therefore respectfully ask such action on the part of the government of Peru on his behalf as will prevent the Peruvian authorities from violating the well-known international laws and comity of nations.

I have the honor to be, &c.,